my snuggles
04-27-2009, 06:27 PM
Hi all, this is my first post and do not know if doing right, my name is Jim Hodges, tried to create a nick but all were taken so I used my honeys nick from yahoo. I have been following all messages here to try and keep up to date on whets going on around me, I figured it is time to share a little info to those that might want.
Well my trip to opening day starts the Thursday before the opening, (been doing the last 30 years) we leave my house at 3am and go from Lancaster to Lake Isabella to chase Crappie, well my friend Cris were worried that they would not be running because of cold conditions, we arrived at dawn, bought launch permit and went to launch ramp, the are we wanted to fish was dry, so we decided to go and fish docks, that was a great choice, every stall had Crappie in the top of water 3ft. every cast with mini jig produced a fish, they weren't huge but were frying size, we probably caught over 200 Crappie, we only kept 50.
At around 10 am we decided it was time to continue our journey up North, we arrived to Bishop around 1pm the town seemed very quiet, went to the inspection station to get the boat inspected, went to the motel to check in, drop the boat, and proceeded to Pleasant Valley, well to our surprise all the trout were dinks, but you couldn’t keep your line in the water let alone fish with two poles, went through 4 dozen night crawlers in about 4 hours it was great fishing but most were very small. We kept a limit each for our Friday night fish fry, after filleting we had about a pound of meat.
The following morning we took the boat to launch and beach at Hilton, do this every year, its to save a spot to fish in case of weather, got there paid my fees was getting ready to launch and the sheriff said I should not go out on lake because of the wind, I explained that all I was doing was going to beach it around the corner, he asked if I had been here before in the weather and said yes, he seen me put on life jacket and said just hug the shore-line and I said no problem, got on the lake and my flat bottom cruise over the white caps, we beached the boat, marked our spot and proceeded down to the river looking for more meat for dinner that evening, got to Laws bridge it was empty, went to Line street it was empty, someone said that they were having hatchery problems. So was back to Pleasant Valley, but we were going to try a different area, so we went to launch ramp, fishing was about like the previous day very hungry fish,
But they were a little bigger, even one about pound and a half. After a few hours we decided it was time to back and cook all the trout we had and get everything for the opener ready.
Woke at 3am and headed to Crowley, the weather had changed dramatically, got there it was 22 and wind blowing about 20miles an hour, so the spot we marked we decided to fish, and it was worth it, had our limits around 10 am smallest fish about 2 ½ pounds up to about 3 ½ pounds. It was great coldest opening in the last 10 years but the fishing was the best in the last few years. The following day lake was like glass and we did the same except we went trolling. Over all it was a great 4 days of fishing.
Well my trip to opening day starts the Thursday before the opening, (been doing the last 30 years) we leave my house at 3am and go from Lancaster to Lake Isabella to chase Crappie, well my friend Cris were worried that they would not be running because of cold conditions, we arrived at dawn, bought launch permit and went to launch ramp, the are we wanted to fish was dry, so we decided to go and fish docks, that was a great choice, every stall had Crappie in the top of water 3ft. every cast with mini jig produced a fish, they weren't huge but were frying size, we probably caught over 200 Crappie, we only kept 50.
At around 10 am we decided it was time to continue our journey up North, we arrived to Bishop around 1pm the town seemed very quiet, went to the inspection station to get the boat inspected, went to the motel to check in, drop the boat, and proceeded to Pleasant Valley, well to our surprise all the trout were dinks, but you couldn’t keep your line in the water let alone fish with two poles, went through 4 dozen night crawlers in about 4 hours it was great fishing but most were very small. We kept a limit each for our Friday night fish fry, after filleting we had about a pound of meat.
The following morning we took the boat to launch and beach at Hilton, do this every year, its to save a spot to fish in case of weather, got there paid my fees was getting ready to launch and the sheriff said I should not go out on lake because of the wind, I explained that all I was doing was going to beach it around the corner, he asked if I had been here before in the weather and said yes, he seen me put on life jacket and said just hug the shore-line and I said no problem, got on the lake and my flat bottom cruise over the white caps, we beached the boat, marked our spot and proceeded down to the river looking for more meat for dinner that evening, got to Laws bridge it was empty, went to Line street it was empty, someone said that they were having hatchery problems. So was back to Pleasant Valley, but we were going to try a different area, so we went to launch ramp, fishing was about like the previous day very hungry fish,
But they were a little bigger, even one about pound and a half. After a few hours we decided it was time to back and cook all the trout we had and get everything for the opener ready.
Woke at 3am and headed to Crowley, the weather had changed dramatically, got there it was 22 and wind blowing about 20miles an hour, so the spot we marked we decided to fish, and it was worth it, had our limits around 10 am smallest fish about 2 ½ pounds up to about 3 ½ pounds. It was great coldest opening in the last 10 years but the fishing was the best in the last few years. The following day lake was like glass and we did the same except we went trolling. Over all it was a great 4 days of fishing.